repitition lines

i've looked through most of the posts for help on my enquiry but I haven't found anything to help yet...

I use 2D drafting (ST6) mostly for drawings for our faqbrication business and for example when i would like to draw say a standard steel square frame 3m x 3m and i need to draw in up rights inside the frame, say 25mm wide at 115mm apart. is there a quick way of doing this? as up to now i just start up the top with a line, then go along 115mm then down to the bottom then across 25mm then up to the top and across 115mm and so on until i get to the end!

I've tried to copy and paste, but i find it hard to line up with where i want hem to go as i still need to get them the right distance apart... plus i need the uprights to end up central to the frame, that is, with the same gap at each side where they stop near the frame...

not sure if this all makes sense, but if it does, i'd be glad of anyones help.

Re: repitition lines

Let's back up to the beginning. You can make your life easire if you change your way of thinking. In your workflow you are drawing 4 lines the exact length. There is an easier way. Make sure you have Maintain Relationships and Relationship Handles enabled.

For example you want to draw a line 50mm. Just draw a line and don't worry with the length. Then place a dimension on the line. Modify the value of the dimension to 50mm. THe dimension changes the length of the line to 50mm.

You draw 4 lines to represent a rectangle. Instead, draw a rectangle and don't worry about the length and width. A rectangle is really four connected lines that maintain perpendicularity. After placing the rectangle, place one dimension on one of the width lines and another dimension on one of the length lines. Change the value of the dimensions acccordingly. Each dimension will change the length of two lines in the rectangle.

After you have the rectangle at the correct size. It is easy to use the Offset command. Offset will place a dimension that maintains the offset distance. You can offset inward or outward with respect to the rectangle.